Dr. Panahpour, Jessica Jones and of course me:)

It has been almost a week since my Cavitation Surgery last Thursday. I am not going to lie, it has been an intense week.

The recovery overall has been much harder than I had anticipated. I went into the surgery feeling pretty strong. Overall I have been feeling 80% better, especially thanks to Thymus Therapy. I know that this feeling of being set back is temporary as I recover from the actual surgery, but its still frustrating.

The surgery itself went great. Dr. Panahpour and his team were all fantastic and very professional. I felt very comfortable under his care and trusted him to do a great job. I was put under anesthesia for the whole procedure and fortunately, I don’t remember much of it. I remember getting an IV that helped me feel calm, and then I remember the whole team yelling “Erika wake up!” I woke up and it was done!

I definitely felt pretty out of it for a while as the anesthesia wore off and I headed over to Infusio for a day of IVs to kill whatever got set free from my cavitations. Dr Pana said that both of my caviatations were pretty bad once he got in there. The left side had a lot of nerve damage from Spirochetes and the right side definitely had Parasites and the cavitation was extending to my mandibular.

The infected tissue has been sent to a lab so I am waiting to see the report of everything that was in there. It was cool to see what got removed in the tubes before it got sent off to the lab. He also used PRP with ozone to help speed the recovery of healthy bone.

One of the extractions being sent off to the lab.

A Few Key Points Post Surgery...

Swelling

I experienced a lot of swelling. Especially on the left side. I did ice a little bit but Dr. Pana suggested not icing too much. Swelling means blood flow, and blood flow means healing. Its a fine line between too much swelling and not enough blood flow. Even though I did ice a bit in the beginning l still looked like a chipmunk so I figure the swelling helped get some blood into the surgery sites.

Pain

The pain was pretty intense. I have been taking Tylenol and IB Profen every 6 hours. I usually never take NSAIDS since they can cause so much harm to your gut, but having a painful surgery is definitely an exception. I also had prescription pain killers which I did utilize the first few days. The pain would be manageable for 1-4 hours but the last 2 hours before my next dose was very hard and painful. I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain, and fortunately it would be time for my next dose so I would take that and fall back to sleep once the pain subsided. The pain is definitely different from Lyme pain, but it is intense. You can feel something happening in your jaw. Its a strange feeling for sure.

Numbness

Numbness in the lip, gums and cheeks can happen on occasion as a result of this surgery. Unfortunately it happened to me on the left side. Dr. Pana says there was so much damage to my nerve in the cavitation that he had to really do a deep clean to get the infection out. The numbness is more of an inconvenience then anything. The numbness can be a result of nerve damage from the procedure or the swelling in my face that is causing swelling around the nerve. The numbness was substantially better today so I am hoping it clears up quickly. He suggested acupuncture and some homeopathics to help the nerve heal faster. My body reacts great to acupuncture so I have an appt on Friday. It can take a few days to a year for the numbness to go away! I am focusing on a few days and not even entertaining the idea of years.

Eating

I was very ambitious in thinking I would be eating normal food by early this week. I am able to chew lightly with my front teeth but eating is tricky. I was starving after surgery and bone broth and egg was not really cutting it for me. I was able to move up to some wild smoked salmon, avocado, scrambled eggs and shredded chicken this week. I also made Bulletproof soups with lots of healthy fats. I finally started satisfying my hunger but am so ready to chew. I can’t wait bite into and chew a juicy grass fed steak!

Sleeping

I did not feel like I got very restful sleep the days right after surgery. You are supposed to sleep on your back with your head propped up on pillows. I usually sleep on my stomach/side and have terrible insomnia to begin with so not being comfortable to fall asleep did not help. Also, my pillows felt too hard to rest my sore and swollen face on. I suggest getting a really soft down pillow to rest on for the first few days if you want to lay on your side.

Overall Feeling

I have definitely felt fatigued since my surgery, which I was expecting. I have also had swarms of herxing which have included feverishness, sweats, lightheadedness and dizziness. I am taking my usual binders, resting and drinking lots of water. This is to be expected after the surgery as you release a lot of bugs and your immune system has to mount an attack on everything while it is healing your cavitations.

Puppy snuggles and flowers make everyone feel better.

What Helped The Most

Netflix, puppy snuggles from these babies above and a movie marathon with my boyfriend who ended up getting a cold and spending the weekend in bed with me. Flowers from my friends Terry and Megan definitely helped perk up my room (photo). Pain killers for the pain and Marys Medicinal Transdermal Patches. I used the CBD ones the most to help with pain and inflammation. They also helped take a bit of the edge off. I used Arnica before and after surgery as well. Also, I splurged and had some coconut based sorbet from Kippys. The ice cold treat seemed to make everything better in the moment.

Thymus

I have been doing Thymus Therapy from Infusio and did an injection on Sunday and Wed. I noticed the biggest boost in my improvement after the injections. I had more energy and made the most progress on these days. I think the Thymus gave my immune system the extra boost it needed on those days to get ahead of the recovery.

Conclusion

Overall the best thing has just been a lot of rest to let my body do its thing and heal and repair. I have spent most of the time in bed watching Netflix and am starting to go a little stir crazy. Today I got up and laid out in the sun a bit to get some vitamin D and I seem to be feeling stronger today. Tomorrow I am getting IVs so hopefully that gives me a final boost with things.

Recovery can usually take 1-2 weeks and since I did 2 at once it is taking me a bit longer. Only time will tell how big of an improvement this step will help me make, but I feel better knowing those horrible infections are out of my body.

One of the hardest parts has been feeling set back to a place I have not been for a while. While I know this is temporary, it's still hard to be stuck in bed all day and feel exhausted from taking a shower. Yesterday when I took a shower I felt herxing and had to rest for a while. Those days have not happened to me for over 6 months. I do know this will pass and I will be better than where I was before surgery and I try to keep reminding myself of that when it feels hard.

I have my follow up visit with Dr. Pana next week to get my stitches out and do my next x-tips on my upper cavitations. I will report back on progress then.

Tomorrow I start my treatments to prep for stem cells at the end of the month. If you want to follow my daily progress at Infusio make sure to follow me on Facebook and stay tuned for more updated blogs.